Just "inherited" a commercial property that needs significant repairs and renovations [AU] Need some advice on how to approach it. personalfinance

So the situation is that a few weeks ago I received word from my parents that their retail business was failing and that they were losing money daily. They have zero savings and were clinging on to the business until all of their kids had finished university. I've only just finished uni and have a full time job lined up, so the responsibility has come to me!

The land and building itself is worth ~1 million. Sounds good... but it's generating zero income and is in serious need of repairs. The big upside is that they own the block of land that the building is on and have paid off the mortgage. The plan at the moment is to close up shop ASAP and lease the property out so that they could gain an income to help them through retirement. at present, it looks like we could lease it for $60 000 a year which would be fantastic... if only we could get it done! They had listed the property through a commercial real estate agent and even though they've occasionally had someone interested, no-one has followed through and made an offer. The main reason for this would be that the building is in need of significant repairs. The roof leaks in some points, the carpark is full of potholes and needs resurfacing and the inside of the building is still full of fixtures from the retail store. That being said, the water and electricity is in good working order, and the property itself is in a good location.

Because it is quite a large asset, the plan was for my parents to transfer the building to me, otherwise they would not be able to claim welfare / pension. I'm happy for this to be done and have about $60 000 that I could contribute to restoring the building and finding someone to lease it (and will have enough left over for an emergency fund!).

Step 1 for me was to clear all of my parents debts which were accumulating interest which is done. Step 2 is to get them a positive cash flow through applying for welfare and the pension. This is already in motion and will hopefully be completed soon. Step 3 is to get this building up to a standard so that we can get someone to lease it!

And so gurus of PersonalFinance, I need some help with figuring out my plan of attack:

1. I have been contacting people individually for quotes on repairs for the building. Is there someone else who I could be contacting to help me assess the building and figure what other repairs and maintenance is required to be done? The carpark repairs alone is ~$12 000. I'm still waiting on a quote from the roof.

2. There is about $5000 worth of supermarket retail stock left in the property - is there someone who I could talk to about selling it off?

3. What else can I do to increase the value of the property and get it leased?

4. There are a lot of retail store fixtures including a cool room and very old refrigerators. I don't think that they work properly. I was going to sell them for scrap metal but it seems like such a waste for very expensive equipment. Is there someone else who I should be approaching who would potentially buy it?

Thanks in advance for your help PF! I've been a long time lurker and had gotten my finances into pretty good shape thanks to the great advice I've read on this subreddit. You guys rock.

tl;dr: Have been given a property with great potential to be leased. Unfortunately, no-one will be interested in it unless lots of repairs have been made. How do i go about this without sinking all of my savings into it?

Submitted December 19, 2015 at 02:25AM by amadeus46 http://ift.tt/22ewVks personalfinance